Forgotten Women Friday #48
Qiu Jin- 1875-1907- China
“China’s Feminist Martyr”
Qiu Jin would become many things-- a poet, feminist, revolutionary, and martyr. But she began as a young girl, born into China’s gentry in 1875 during the Qing dynasty. Because of her family’s status, she received an extensive education and fell in love with writing early on. She particularly loved to write about female warriors from Chinese history, and one of her poems began, “Don’t tell me women / are not the stuff of heroes.” Although she dreamed of being a hero, Qiu’s family made her bind her feet, practice needlework, and enter into an arranged marriage with the son of a wealthy merchant. Her marriage was an extremely unhappy one, and she wrote of her husband, “That person’s behavior is worse than an animal’s… He treats me as less than nothing.” Forced to look outside her marriage for inspiration, Jin observed the events of the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising against the Qing dynasty and wealthy Westerners living in China, and became intrigued. Jin finally left her husband in 1903 to study in Japan, and it was here that she became actively outspoken about women’s rights. She also grew impressed with the Japanese’s disciplined militancy, and she began practicing martial arts and dressing in masculine clothing. She was forever frustrated with China’s gender roles, writing, “My body will not allow me / To mingle with the men / But my heart is far braver / Than that of a man.”
When she returned to China in 1906, she joined the Triads, an underground society of rebels that sought to overthrow the Qing dynasty and restore the Han government, and learned skills like bomb-making. Qiu also founded her own journal, the “Chinese Women’s Journal,” in which she published many musings on feminism, such as her belief that the nuclear family was oppressive to women. In 1907, she was appointed head of the Datong school in Shaoxing, which was secretly used to militarily train revolutionaries. During this time, Qiu wrote, “With all my heart I beseech and beg my two hundred million female compatriots to assume their responsibility as citizens. Arise! Arise! Chinese women, arise!” She had been working closely with her cousin, Xu Xilin, during this time, but in July he was caught and tortured for information over a planned uprising. Xu was executed and Qiu was warned that she would be next. However, being unafraid to die for her cause, Qiu stayed at the school and continued to teach. Sensing her impending doom, she famously wrote one final poem that played on her name, which meant “autumn.” She wrote, “Autumn wind, autumn rain, they make one die of sorrow.”
One week later, Qiu was arrested. She refused to reveal plans of the revolution even after undergoing relentless torture. On July 15, 1907, Qiu was publicly executed. However, her death had the opposite effect the regime intended. The public was horrified that the Qing dynasty would brutally behead a woman, and Qiu became a national hero and a symbol of women’s independence in China. The Qing Dynasty would fall just five years after her death. As The New York Times wrote, “With her passion for wine, swords and bomb making, Qiu Jin was unlike most women born in late 19th-century China.” Zhang Lifan, a Beijing- based historian, said, “Qiu Jin lived at a time when women in China were not permitted to venture out of their homes, let alone participate in public affairs. So Qiu Jin not only participated in politics, her actions alone were a rebellion.” More than a century after her death, her legacy as a pioneering feminist in China lives on, and people continue to visit her tomb in Hangzhou to pay their respects.
The above image comes from a 2011 film about Qiu’s life entitled, “Jian hu nu xia Qiu Jin,” or “The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake.”
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